¡Hola mi familia y mis amigos!
Hey!! Who is this "Michael" character that Kelby tore apart on the battlefield of love and emotions? I am so far apart from the world right now...
Speaking of that particular battlefield, last week was actually kind of fun/interesting in that aspect. On the mission, it's actually pretty easy to get caught up in family affairs and a lot of drama, especially when people trust you enough to spill out all of their problems and worries and dreams and aspirations. You just have to be very careful what you say, how you react, what you advise, how you teach. Thank goodness we're not doing this alone, because without the guidance of the Spirit, I don't know how I would have gotten out of some certain situations alive. The truth is, I never ever give my advice to anyone, I simply answer questions with scriptures and teach people how to receive revelation for themselves. The moment they understand personal revelation, the entire conversion process becomes infinitely easier, because they simply realize that everything we teach is true becase it is God that tells them specifically that!
We have one investigator, Hector, who is 26 years old and single, and a young woman member about the same age keeps asking to accompany us to lessons with him or asking us how to start a conversation with him. Haha, she's obviously lovestruck, but I told her straight up, if she wants anything to do in that category, she needs to do it herself, we are NOT here to meddle in affairs like that, way too messy, way too dangerous. I understand that we desire the complete salvation of Hector and eternal marriage is an essential piece of the plan, but we focus mostly on the first steps, being baptism and confirmation.
A couple of miracles from last week include a lesson with the Novac family, one of those families where the dad just doesn't want to listen. He works at night and gets home at noon, and sleeps til 10:30 PM. He is anti-Mormon, and doesn't understand why his family is listening to us, nor why they went to church a couple of weeks ago. We teach them - the wife, their son, and their 3 daughters - while he is upstairs sleeping (with his permission, don't worry). We prepared a lesson that was just pure family talk, centered in what families mean in God's plan, and how to achieve and maintain family unity. We just reached right down into the heart, I don't know how to describe it. Our intent with the lesson was to impulse them to get their father to listen along with them, and if they couldn't get their father to join them, we would end up leaving them, because they just can't progress if they're not in this together. Like I said last week, it just doesn't quite work when one half of the family has no idea what's going on. It was a lesson purely guided by the Spirit, with questions that were just inspired from somewhere besides ourselves. By the end, they still weren't exactly willing to urge their dad to open up, but one last question left our lips that was pure inspiration. As the mother pondered what we asked her, there was silence in the room and we literally watched as the Spirit worked within her heart and mind, and finally she replied, "OK. Come next Wednesday at 12:30 and we'll be ready to listen together." It was incredible.
Rodolfo, Nancy's husband, that I said professed himself atheist, swore he would never enter a church. Last Friday, he came to the branch activity, a dance and dinner, with his wife. Believe me on this one, it was a miracle.
A couple of members asked me if I was from Colorado, and then told me that there was really sad news about a Batman mass murderer in Denver. I'm really sad to hear that, especially since the Columbine scar never really goes away.
Today we have changes, once again. My heart wrenched a bit when I heard that I was leaving. Elder Córdoba and I were really hoping to get 2 transfers together. I think every Latter-day Saint waits for that special companionship of missionaries to arrive to their ward to introduce their friends and family to them, a companionship where the unity just radiates from them. I confidently say that Elder Córdoba is that companion. He is incredible. In these last 5 and a half weeks, we've heard time and again from numerous members that there's something really special about us two together, and they can feel how well we get along together. I will certainly miss him, but I'm not going too far away. I'm actually just crossing the street pretty much to La Cantera, which is another branch in Coquimbo, so we're still in the same zone and everything. My new companion is actually the elder I mentioned last Monday played volleyball in high school, Elder Tonks! I went on an interchange with him a couple of weeks ago, and he has a spectacular background story. He's from Las Vegas, and we're pretty stoked to get going together, so I'll move my stuff over to our pension tonight and get started working. The promised land just got a little bit bigger. I love you all!
Love, Elder Kimball
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